Albany Park can be found in Chicago’s northwestern side, flanked by the Chicago River. Albany Park (roughly 3400 West and 4800 North) provides exceedingly picturesque surroundings and tranquil scenery amid its range of community parks.

Opportunely placed for commuters, Albany Park is approximately 20 miles from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, 17 miles from the downtown “Loop”, and the community is just minutes away from the Edens Expressway and the Kennedy Expressway. Furthermore, the CTA Brown line runs through the region with stops at Kimball and Kedzie.

This community has been a settling place for many persons new to Chicago. The metropolitan area incorporates many cultural shops, restaurants, and churches that cater to quite a few different cultures and faiths. There are a few schools in the area as well.

While the community once had a significant Jewish populace, at present Albany Park has developed a broader ethnic feel as varying groups of immigrants have decided to put down roots. A recent census report indicates the region of Albany Park is comprised of a mix of Hispanic (46.38%), White (27.52%), Asian (17.65%) and Black (3.31%). There are at least 25 different languages spoken in Albany Park, and it is one of the top localities in the country regarding ethnic diversity. Lately, a large concentration of Bosnians has been settling in the community.

Because of its affordable homes and housing properties and diverse population of approximately 58,000, the populace of this region has enlarged by more than 25 percent in the past two and a half decades.

Homes and housing properties usually are affordable bungalows, cottages, and small apartment buildings. Albany Park’s number of reasonably priced homes is a marvelous inducement.

Albany Park is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the Northwest Side of Chicago, and one of the most diverse in the United States. It has one of highest percentages of foreign-born residents of neighborhoods in Chicago. Although the majority of those foreign-born residents are from Latin America, the majority from Mexico (especially from the state of Michoacán) and Guatemala, substantial numbers are from the Philippines, India, Korea, Vietnam, the Former Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia), Romania, Pakistan and the Middle East. Over 40 different languages are spoken in its public schools. The neighborhood has been the “Koreatown” of Chicago for some time. The majority of Korean shops, in Albany Park, can be found on Lawrence Avenue (4800 North), between Kedzie (3200 West) and Pulaski (4000 West). Although many of the Asians in the neighborhood have been moving to the north suburbs in recent years, it still retains its Korean flavor. Every year there is a Korean festival and the neighborhood is home to a Korean television station (WOCH-LP Ch. 28) and radio station (1330 AM) as well as two Korean-language newspapers. There are still many Korean businesses interspersed among the newer Mexican bakeries and Middle Eastern grocery stores. Albany Park is also notable for being the home of the current governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich.

It has the north terminal for the Brown Line (aka the Ravenswood ‘L’) at Lawrence and Kimball Avenues. (Source: wikipedia.org)